Treasure Gathering Immortal Furnace

Canglan, Da Yan, Dao Zong.

Inside the dimly lit cave, a chilling wind rustled through the air.

Holding a torch, Lu Fan limped into the cave. The fiery red light illuminated his handsome, slightly haggard face, which appeared to be that of a thirteen or fourteen-year-old.

The coarse cloth shirt he wore was faded from washing, patched upon patched, revealing his poverty.

Lu Fan placed the torch on the ground, walked to a corpse that had long since turned into a desiccated corpse, bowed and cupped his hands: "Senior brother, your junior brother has been ordered by the sect to escort you out of seclusion."

This dried corpse is my senior brother who went into seclusion five years ago in search of a breakthrough. He did not successfully establish his foundation and probably passed away three years ago.

Because the Qi Refining stage disciple did not have a sect life token, he died three years before Lu Fan, the corpse collector, came to collect him.

"Senior brother, after you finish this last meal, you can rest in peace on your journey," Lu Fan lit three incense sticks, placed them in front of the dried corpse, and sat down to wait patiently.

Lu Fan was an outer disciple of the Dao Sect. He was abandoned by his parents when he was still an infant. Because he was born with a mutated spiritual root, he was discovered by a Foundation Establishment female cultivator and brought back to the Dao Sect.

The Foundation Establishment female cultivator thought she had struck gold, but when she tested her spiritual root at the age of three, she discovered that Lu Fan not only had a mutated spiritual root, but also a mixed mutated spiritual root of the five elements.

Ordinary mixed spiritual roots are composed of five elements: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. They are extremely difficult to cultivate, and it is basically impossible to reach the Foundation Establishment stage.

As for Lu Fan, he possesses a mixed spiritual root with five elements: wind, thunder, darkness, molten metal, and magnetism.

Calling him a waste is one thing, but for anyone else to have a mutated spiritual root is to become a peerless prodigy that major sects fight to the death for.

While he might be considered a genius, he possesses five mutated spiritual roots, making Lu Fan's cultivation path a hundred times more difficult than that of ordinary mixed spiritual roots.

The female cultivator then left Lu Fan with some sect servants to raise, and went into seclusion.

More than ten years have passed, and Lu Fan has never seen any Foundation Establishment female cultivators again.

Without any help, it took him more than ten years to reach the second level of Qi Refining.

Most importantly, Lu Fan was born with a congenital leg ailment, which is why he was nicknamed "Dead Cripple".

Gradually, Lu Fan was marginalized, and in order to survive, he could only do things like collecting the bodies of his deceased senior brothers and elders.

After the incense had burned out, Lu Fan got up, dusted himself off, and took the storage bag from the dried corpse's waist: "Senior brother, let's leave seclusion."

call.

Just as Lu Fan was about to carry the dried corpse, a gust of cold wind blew by, and the torches beside him suddenly turned green!

"Who!" Lu Fan's face immediately filled with terror. He then looked at the dried corpse beside him, knelt down instantly, and kowtowed, begging for mercy: "Senior brother! I was ordered by Steward Ma to collect and bury your body. Please don't scare me!"

Just as Lu Fan was frantically kowtowing and begging for mercy, a man and a woman were peeking out from outside the cave, watching the situation inside.

The woman, dressed in green, was the same age as Lu Fan. She had a graceful figure and a beautiful face, but there was always a hint of fierceness in her eyes. This was Lu Fan's senior sister, Yan Ruyu.

The man, dressed in a blue robe and with a handsome appearance, was Lu Fan's senior brother, Chen Ming.

Yan Ruyu stomped her foot angrily as she looked at Lu Fan kneeling down, her tone harsh: "This cripple! He's so cowardly, he just kneels down like that?"

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Seeing this, Chen Ming smiled broadly and said, "Hehe, senior sister, I won. I told you, this cripple is a coward."

Yan Ruyu looked disgusted before taking out two spirit stones from her storage bag and tossing them to Chen Ming.

Hearing the sound at the door, Lu Fan stood up and hurriedly bowed, saying, "Senior Sister Yan, Senior Brother Chen, please stop teasing your junior brother."

"You cripple, can't you be a little bolder? I've never won against you when I gamble with you, and you've made me lose two spirit stones!" Yan Ruyu was furious, her face turning ashen.

Lu Fan bent over, his back unconsciously lowering even further, forcing a smile as he said, "Senior Sister, I'm sorry, I'll definitely be more careful next time!"

"Hmph, your offerings to me this month are compensation for the two spirit stones I received," Yan Ruyu snorted.

Lu Fan looked troubled and said softly, "Senior Sister, you have already overdrawn my offerings for the next five months. I have no more spirit stones."

Upon hearing this, Yan Ruyu's face immediately darkened: "Give me your storage bag to pay off the debt!"

Lu Fan gripped the storage bag in his hand tightly and hurriedly explained, "Senior Sister, you sold my storage bag last year. The one I have is Senior Brother's storage bag, which I need to give to Steward Ma."

Upon hearing this, Yan Ruyu's eyes suddenly sharpened, and she held out her hand: "Will you give it to me or not?"

Lu Fan gripped the storage bag and couldn't help but shiver, as if recalling the scene of being brutally beaten by Yan Ruyu last year.

Rather than being brutally beaten by the ruthless Yan Ruyu, it's better to be punished by Steward Ma.

Thinking to himself, Lu Fan loosened his grip on the storage bag a little, and Yan Ruyu raised her hand and sucked the storage bag into her palm.

"That's more like it, but I'm not satisfied with your performance these past few times. I'll punish you by making you stay in the cave for ten days to think about how you can let me win next time," Yan Ruyu said, then raised her hand and smashed the wooden switch inside the stone door.

Rumble.

As the stone door was about to close, Lu Fan cried out in alarm, "Senior Sister! Don't lock me up here!"

Lu Fan tried to rush out of the stone gate with a limp, but before he could get out, Yan Ruyu waved her hand and released a stream of green spiritual energy.

Yan Ruyu's cultivation at the seventh level of Qi Refining was far beyond what Lu Fan could resist. He felt his blood and qi surge within him and his body crashed heavily into the cave.

boom!

The stone gate slammed shut at that moment!

Lu Fan scrambled to his feet, dragging his limping leg to the stone gate, and frantically pounded on it: "Senior Sister! Let me out! I don't have any fasting pills, I'll starve to death!"

"Don't worry, there are plenty of insects, snakes, rats and ants in this cave. Even if you're really starving, you can eat the dried corpse of one of your senior brothers," Yan Ruyu said sarcastically before swaggering away.

Lu Fan was terrified. He quickly picked up a torch and went to the switch, but Yan Ruyu had broken the switch. No matter how hard Lu Fan pressed it, he could not open the stone door.

boom!

"Damn it!" Lu Fan angrily punched the stone door.

"hiss!"

The intense pain caused Lu Fan to gasp, and his emotions gradually calmed down.

Lu Fan didn't want to die here, after all, he would be there to collect the bodies of other cultivators who passed away.

If he dies here, the next senior brother who enters the cave will probably burn him to ashes.

Left with no other option, Lu Fan could only use a torch to explore the surrounding stone walls, but after searching around, he found no other switches.

Despite his inner turmoil, Lu Fan continued to search around several more times, but even after the torch burned out, he still couldn't find any other exit.

As the last glimmer of light went out, the entire cave was plunged into complete darkness.

Just then, Lu Fan suddenly noticed a very faint point of light on the wall in the distance, which he hadn't noticed at first because of the torchlight.

The torch went out, but a faint light shone through. Lu Fan mustered his courage and walked to the light, only to find that it was an extremely thin crack.

Lu Fan peered over and was astonished to find that there was another cave on the other side of the crevice.

"Strange, how come there's a secret room in this cave?" Lu Fan wondered, reaching out to feel around on the dark stone wall.

Rumble!

Suddenly, it seemed as if Lu Fan had touched a switch, and the stone wall in front of him suddenly opened.

In the secret chamber, a frail, white-haired old man sat cross-legged on a futon, with a huge alchemy furnace in front of him.

The alchemy furnace has a unique shape; if it weren't for the air vents around its perimeter, one might mistake it for a large water vat.

Moreover, the alchemy furnace was decorated with golden auspicious cloud patterns, and the faint light emanated from these patterns.

This terrified Lu Fan, who turned pale and immediately knelt on the ground.